We got a video camera a few days ago! Here is our first video blog.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
A Tour of My Classroom!
To get to my classroom you can walk down this sweet checkered hallway.
These are the doors and windows to my classroom! Most Japanese doors are sliding doors as you can see.
Enter Oral Communication Classroom!! Just inside the door you can see the view towards the back of the classroom. This is half....
...and here is the other half. It's a little dark but notice the beautiful windows! Each classroom has these awesome windows.
This is the front of classroom - notice posters Lindsey gave me! THANKS LINDSEY!! Also, you can see there is a giant podium at the front. If you look very closely you can see that just in front of the chalkboard the floor is raised up one step. Make the teacher more prominent maybe? I'm not sure, but it's actually kind of annoying. I often trip over this step.
You can see the left-front of classroom. I wanted to show you my desk in the corner. I didn't want this desk becuase there really isn't that much extra space once you get 42 desks in there for the students. But, Watanabe-Sensei insisted that I need it. He recruited some kids to carry it up there for me, so what could I do? the desk in the corner and lovely windows. Didn't want the desk, but Watanabe-Sensei insisted I have it!
From the back of classroom.
This is taken from window showing the doors of classroom.
This is my reading-corner in the making. I scrounged up some magazine and English newspapers with the hope that students would spend more time in my classroom speaking English with me. The students are definitely interested in the magazines, everyday before and after class there are people standing there gawking at the half nude ads, but it hasn't been enough to entice them in on their lunch break for some extra English time with me. Ah, oh wel :) I'm working on it. I do need more magazines so if your feeling willing to send me some feel free! Near the "Team Teachers" sign you see I posted all the English teacher profiles (as seen below).
These Teacher Profiles were just another way to entice the student to understand some English. I had every teacher (8 of use all together) do one. Here are a few examples. Click on the pictures to make them bigger if you are interested in what they said.
Watanabe-Sensei. He sits next to me in the teacher's room and is great! He always tells me everything that's going on, and makes sure I'm in the know. I am forever indebted to him.
Nishiguchi-Sensei. She is one of my favorite teachers to teach with. This is only her second year teaching so it's easy to relate to her.
Me
Shuto-Sensei. For some reason she never gave me her profile! I think secretly she just is too shy to put it up. So, in her place I drew her picture for her. One of the other teachers wrote "Late!" on there :)
USA Map. I had a numerous amount postcards from around the US in my desk so I made this bulletin board. Funny story - the students that clean my room everyday like to leave their mark. Often I find things are upside down, sometimes things are misplaced, magazines are opened to the crudest advertisment, but, oh, how clever of them to rearrange the letters to UA SMAP! SMAP is an uber famous boy band here in Japan. They think I don't know that they've changed it...but really I just want to leave it because I think it's funny.
While I'm at it, if you have postcards from any of the 50 states that is NOT Oregon, Idaho, California or NY, I'd love to have them! Send me postcards! Come on, it's for the kids.
Each classroom has a balcony, this is mine.
This is the view from balcony. The round roof is one of the gyms.
Inside Broom Closet. Every classroom and most hallways/stairwells have their own broom closet. There are no janitors in Japanese schools because everyday after school there is a 20-minute cleaning time. The students and teachers are all assigned to a particular place and they clean. Well, "clean." There is a lot of goofing off and standing around, but overall the school stays pretty clean. This is the broom closet for my classroom.
Garbage Cans. In Japan the garbage system is super confusing. We have 4 different garbage days each week - another topic for another entry, but in my classroom I have two different bins. "Burnable" and "Nonburnable." It really throws the kids off that they are marked in English. It's pretty funny to watch them debate which bin is the correct one.
And that's my classroom! I love teaching in it, and I think the kids really like coming here. For the next installment, I will have a tour of my school!
Rachael arrives tomorrow! Yippee!
These are the doors and windows to my classroom! Most Japanese doors are sliding doors as you can see.
Enter Oral Communication Classroom!! Just inside the door you can see the view towards the back of the classroom. This is half....
...and here is the other half. It's a little dark but notice the beautiful windows! Each classroom has these awesome windows.
This is the front of classroom - notice posters Lindsey gave me! THANKS LINDSEY!! Also, you can see there is a giant podium at the front. If you look very closely you can see that just in front of the chalkboard the floor is raised up one step. Make the teacher more prominent maybe? I'm not sure, but it's actually kind of annoying. I often trip over this step.
You can see the left-front of classroom. I wanted to show you my desk in the corner. I didn't want this desk becuase there really isn't that much extra space once you get 42 desks in there for the students. But, Watanabe-Sensei insisted that I need it. He recruited some kids to carry it up there for me, so what could I do? the desk in the corner and lovely windows. Didn't want the desk, but Watanabe-Sensei insisted I have it!
From the back of classroom.
This is taken from window showing the doors of classroom.
This is my reading-corner in the making. I scrounged up some magazine and English newspapers with the hope that students would spend more time in my classroom speaking English with me. The students are definitely interested in the magazines, everyday before and after class there are people standing there gawking at the half nude ads, but it hasn't been enough to entice them in on their lunch break for some extra English time with me. Ah, oh wel :) I'm working on it. I do need more magazines so if your feeling willing to send me some feel free! Near the "Team Teachers" sign you see I posted all the English teacher profiles (as seen below).
These Teacher Profiles were just another way to entice the student to understand some English. I had every teacher (8 of use all together) do one. Here are a few examples. Click on the pictures to make them bigger if you are interested in what they said.
Watanabe-Sensei. He sits next to me in the teacher's room and is great! He always tells me everything that's going on, and makes sure I'm in the know. I am forever indebted to him.
Nishiguchi-Sensei. She is one of my favorite teachers to teach with. This is only her second year teaching so it's easy to relate to her.
Me
Shuto-Sensei. For some reason she never gave me her profile! I think secretly she just is too shy to put it up. So, in her place I drew her picture for her. One of the other teachers wrote "Late!" on there :)
USA Map. I had a numerous amount postcards from around the US in my desk so I made this bulletin board. Funny story - the students that clean my room everyday like to leave their mark. Often I find things are upside down, sometimes things are misplaced, magazines are opened to the crudest advertisment, but, oh, how clever of them to rearrange the letters to UA SMAP! SMAP is an uber famous boy band here in Japan. They think I don't know that they've changed it...but really I just want to leave it because I think it's funny.
While I'm at it, if you have postcards from any of the 50 states that is NOT Oregon, Idaho, California or NY, I'd love to have them! Send me postcards! Come on, it's for the kids.
Each classroom has a balcony, this is mine.
This is the view from balcony. The round roof is one of the gyms.
Inside Broom Closet. Every classroom and most hallways/stairwells have their own broom closet. There are no janitors in Japanese schools because everyday after school there is a 20-minute cleaning time. The students and teachers are all assigned to a particular place and they clean. Well, "clean." There is a lot of goofing off and standing around, but overall the school stays pretty clean. This is the broom closet for my classroom.
Garbage Cans. In Japan the garbage system is super confusing. We have 4 different garbage days each week - another topic for another entry, but in my classroom I have two different bins. "Burnable" and "Nonburnable." It really throws the kids off that they are marked in English. It's pretty funny to watch them debate which bin is the correct one.
And that's my classroom! I love teaching in it, and I think the kids really like coming here. For the next installment, I will have a tour of my school!
Rachael arrives tomorrow! Yippee!
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Boredom
Today I will spend 7 hours sitting in a large room all by myself. 2.5 down, 5 to go. I cannot leave because I have to be here. I have nothing to plan and nothing to do because I’m all caught up as far as lesson plans go.
Therefore, I have learned about things such as how to make compost, who is kissing who in Hollywood, what kind of ‘hair make over’ suits my face, the specifics of the Valerie Plame case and looking up cookie recipes. Not to mention, I updated my Facebook photo albums, edited all the red eye out of my pictures, made sure all my music in i-Tunes has the correct name, artist and genre tag, and drank 2 cups of green tea and 1 cup of coffee. It is true, I get paid well to do these things. It is also true that I am bored out of my mind.
I have made a list of things I can do during this time, blogging is one of them. Hence the post. Other things on my list include: write emails, send letters, send postcards, organize desk. The list is getting shorter and shorter and I’m not sure it will last me all day! Eek!
Why the free time? Now that the seniors have graduated it’s time to turn attention to the newbies. The graduating Jr. High schoolers who want to come to Tsurusaki High School. Those poor kids are entering what could be called the most stressful times in their lives.
I may have said it before, but starting from a very early age most parents fight to get their children into specific elementary schools because it may determine the course of their future. Good Elementary School = Good Jr. High School = Good High School = Good College = Good Job. This is the way it used to work, now things are changing, but you can still feel the immense pressure on these young people to perform. This week is the entrance exams for all the high schools in Oita Prefecture.
Let me describe the week so far to give you a picture:
Monday: We only had 2 real classes - 1st and 2nd period. Then, there was an hour long cleaning session. Then, the students were sent home so the teachers could prepare the rooms for the testing. They had to take down ALL the posters and empty the rooms of everything except the desks and chairs. All testing conditions must be the same down to the very last scrap of paper in each room. Luckily they weren’t using my room.
I never know what to do during these times...so I sat at my desk and observed. Teachers were flying around the school, running CD players here, partitioning off hallways there. It was quite humorous. Then they practiced what they would say over the loud speaker. They announce the breaks, and, I think, the instructions of the test over the loud speaker. They practiced time and time again because there is no room for error.
Tuesday: As I’m walking to school I see the cute little Jr. High School students hurrying to my school. Obviously very stressed. It was the day of the actual test and it looked like they could barely breath!
As usual, I didn’t approach this whole testing business with as much seriousness as it apparently warrants. Case and point, I show up to school in my normal dress, which is black slacks and a long sleeve shirt combination. I walk into the teachers room only to find that EVERY single person is wearing a suit. Even the women. Yes, yes, I am silly gaijin. Normally my desk neighbor keeps me informed of certain days when teachers are expected to dress up, but it must have slipped his mind. So, I slink in feeling all eyes boring into my skull.
All the teachers are wearing a pink ribbon to distinguish themselves as school staff when they greet the students. During the morning meeting teachers are synchronizing their wrist watches with the clocks on the wall (which the day before were synchronized to each other). The tests proceed from 8:30 - 3:30. The loudspeaker intermittently giving the students permission to use the bathroom (with a teacher escort, of course), to put down their pencils, etc. There are giant schedules and information booklets given to all the teachers (except me) that they reference throughout the day. Watanabe-sensei tells me, “We teachers are not supposed to smile or laugh in front of the students. We must be serious. Serious but gentle.” WOW. And I think to myself, “it’s a damn good thing I didn’t smile and say ‘good luck’ to the students I saw coming to school this morning! I would have ruined the facade!” (Really, I didn’t say good luck to them because I thought the kids might poop their pants and get even more stressed about their tests if they were confronted with a gaijin speaking English to them straight off the bat.) Oh, Japan.
So, the day ends. While the teachers are stressing about the events of the day and running here and there I do nothing, just like I’m doing right now.
Wednesday (today): I come to school assuming it will be the same as Tuesday. Another day of tests. Wrong. Today is the ‘grading day.’ Every single teacher hand grades the tests. Then, each test is checked by different teachers not once, not twice, but three times! So, right now every single soul is in the giant meeting room furiously grading tests while I am left here alone to sit at my desk and waste time. I feel very stupid sitting here alone when the occasional teacher pops in for a cup of tea.
Tomorrow I’m told the teachers will have big meetings discussing who should be let in to Tsurusaki High School, and then they will prepare the magic list to post.
I’m not sure what happens to the kids that don’t get in. Do they have a stand-by school? Do they take more tests? When? I have tried to ask these questions but they don’t understand my questions. So, I’ll work on that.
As for now, I must cross ‘write blog’ off my list and work on something else! Only and hour until lunch...that should be a fun break.
Therefore, I have learned about things such as how to make compost, who is kissing who in Hollywood, what kind of ‘hair make over’ suits my face, the specifics of the Valerie Plame case and looking up cookie recipes. Not to mention, I updated my Facebook photo albums, edited all the red eye out of my pictures, made sure all my music in i-Tunes has the correct name, artist and genre tag, and drank 2 cups of green tea and 1 cup of coffee. It is true, I get paid well to do these things. It is also true that I am bored out of my mind.
I have made a list of things I can do during this time, blogging is one of them. Hence the post. Other things on my list include: write emails, send letters, send postcards, organize desk. The list is getting shorter and shorter and I’m not sure it will last me all day! Eek!
Why the free time? Now that the seniors have graduated it’s time to turn attention to the newbies. The graduating Jr. High schoolers who want to come to Tsurusaki High School. Those poor kids are entering what could be called the most stressful times in their lives.
I may have said it before, but starting from a very early age most parents fight to get their children into specific elementary schools because it may determine the course of their future. Good Elementary School = Good Jr. High School = Good High School = Good College = Good Job. This is the way it used to work, now things are changing, but you can still feel the immense pressure on these young people to perform. This week is the entrance exams for all the high schools in Oita Prefecture.
Let me describe the week so far to give you a picture:
Monday: We only had 2 real classes - 1st and 2nd period. Then, there was an hour long cleaning session. Then, the students were sent home so the teachers could prepare the rooms for the testing. They had to take down ALL the posters and empty the rooms of everything except the desks and chairs. All testing conditions must be the same down to the very last scrap of paper in each room. Luckily they weren’t using my room.
I never know what to do during these times...so I sat at my desk and observed. Teachers were flying around the school, running CD players here, partitioning off hallways there. It was quite humorous. Then they practiced what they would say over the loud speaker. They announce the breaks, and, I think, the instructions of the test over the loud speaker. They practiced time and time again because there is no room for error.
Tuesday: As I’m walking to school I see the cute little Jr. High School students hurrying to my school. Obviously very stressed. It was the day of the actual test and it looked like they could barely breath!
As usual, I didn’t approach this whole testing business with as much seriousness as it apparently warrants. Case and point, I show up to school in my normal dress, which is black slacks and a long sleeve shirt combination. I walk into the teachers room only to find that EVERY single person is wearing a suit. Even the women. Yes, yes, I am silly gaijin. Normally my desk neighbor keeps me informed of certain days when teachers are expected to dress up, but it must have slipped his mind. So, I slink in feeling all eyes boring into my skull.
All the teachers are wearing a pink ribbon to distinguish themselves as school staff when they greet the students. During the morning meeting teachers are synchronizing their wrist watches with the clocks on the wall (which the day before were synchronized to each other). The tests proceed from 8:30 - 3:30. The loudspeaker intermittently giving the students permission to use the bathroom (with a teacher escort, of course), to put down their pencils, etc. There are giant schedules and information booklets given to all the teachers (except me) that they reference throughout the day. Watanabe-sensei tells me, “We teachers are not supposed to smile or laugh in front of the students. We must be serious. Serious but gentle.” WOW. And I think to myself, “it’s a damn good thing I didn’t smile and say ‘good luck’ to the students I saw coming to school this morning! I would have ruined the facade!” (Really, I didn’t say good luck to them because I thought the kids might poop their pants and get even more stressed about their tests if they were confronted with a gaijin speaking English to them straight off the bat.) Oh, Japan.
So, the day ends. While the teachers are stressing about the events of the day and running here and there I do nothing, just like I’m doing right now.
Wednesday (today): I come to school assuming it will be the same as Tuesday. Another day of tests. Wrong. Today is the ‘grading day.’ Every single teacher hand grades the tests. Then, each test is checked by different teachers not once, not twice, but three times! So, right now every single soul is in the giant meeting room furiously grading tests while I am left here alone to sit at my desk and waste time. I feel very stupid sitting here alone when the occasional teacher pops in for a cup of tea.
Tomorrow I’m told the teachers will have big meetings discussing who should be let in to Tsurusaki High School, and then they will prepare the magic list to post.
I’m not sure what happens to the kids that don’t get in. Do they have a stand-by school? Do they take more tests? When? I have tried to ask these questions but they don’t understand my questions. So, I’ll work on that.
As for now, I must cross ‘write blog’ off my list and work on something else! Only and hour until lunch...that should be a fun break.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Photo Update
Hey people. I'll let the pictures do the talking for this last month!
At the beginning of Feb. we went to Hita again to meet our friend, Naoko, who came from Tokyo. It's always good to see her.
Phil, Shawn and Naoko
We took a trip to the World's Longest Suspension Footbridge! I know, it's hard to believe we actually saw such a feat...but we did. Notice all the people, the Japanese people are going crazy for this footbridge! It just opened two months ago and it's always PACKED.
One perk was blue berry soft cream.
Letting out the inner child! It took us a few takes to get this one right.
We were trying to find an Ice Festival. Eventually we found it, but unfortunately, it was so warm the ice scultpures were melting.
Althought this guy was not made of ice, he was the most exciting thing there!
Then, the fun was over for me. I came down with pneumonia and had to stay in the hospital for five days. It was incredibly boring. Feeling much better now, but wow! I never thought I'd have the privilege of a hospital stay in Japan. Maybe some other time I will write about that experience. But for now, here are some pictures of me.
I had to wear this face mask walking around the hospital. These are actually quite common in Japan and not because of SARS. They wear them as prevention and also anytime they have a cold. I see them everyday on teachers or students...now I don't even notice them. It's crazy.
After missing a week of work and sanity, I mustered up some energy to attend Tom's birthday party. We went to dinner and chatted.
Me and Steph
Tom (the birthday boy) and Shawn drinking his very pink drink.
This week was a big week at work. The seniors graduated, so all week my English club and I were preparing for a farewell party for the seniors. Maybe I will also write about graduation sometime, but for now here are some pics of my club!
All the ESS members
San-Nensei (third years) = Seniors with their gifts
Ichi-Nensei (first years) = Sophomores. They are so cute!!
Another busy week of work went by and today we went on a gorgeous bike ride! This weekend it has been absolutely beautiful so we took advantage of the weather and cruised down one of the many riverside paths in Tsurusaki. One of the very cool things about being here is on top of every river bank there are fantastic paved paths for running, walking, biking. They are away from traffic and follow the rivers for miles. We are fortunate enough to have three major rivers each within 10 minutes of our door. This summer there will be lots of swimming and hanging out at the river.
View of the paths along the Ono River
Shawn looking coolio
View of beautiful mountains around our area
Lovely spring colors on the river bank
My sweet bike
Me being goofy
Us
And that's the update for now!
Happy March.
At the beginning of Feb. we went to Hita again to meet our friend, Naoko, who came from Tokyo. It's always good to see her.
Phil, Shawn and Naoko
We took a trip to the World's Longest Suspension Footbridge! I know, it's hard to believe we actually saw such a feat...but we did. Notice all the people, the Japanese people are going crazy for this footbridge! It just opened two months ago and it's always PACKED.
One perk was blue berry soft cream.
Letting out the inner child! It took us a few takes to get this one right.
We were trying to find an Ice Festival. Eventually we found it, but unfortunately, it was so warm the ice scultpures were melting.
Althought this guy was not made of ice, he was the most exciting thing there!
Then, the fun was over for me. I came down with pneumonia and had to stay in the hospital for five days. It was incredibly boring. Feeling much better now, but wow! I never thought I'd have the privilege of a hospital stay in Japan. Maybe some other time I will write about that experience. But for now, here are some pictures of me.
I had to wear this face mask walking around the hospital. These are actually quite common in Japan and not because of SARS. They wear them as prevention and also anytime they have a cold. I see them everyday on teachers or students...now I don't even notice them. It's crazy.
After missing a week of work and sanity, I mustered up some energy to attend Tom's birthday party. We went to dinner and chatted.
Me and Steph
Tom (the birthday boy) and Shawn drinking his very pink drink.
This week was a big week at work. The seniors graduated, so all week my English club and I were preparing for a farewell party for the seniors. Maybe I will also write about graduation sometime, but for now here are some pics of my club!
All the ESS members
San-Nensei (third years) = Seniors with their gifts
Ichi-Nensei (first years) = Sophomores. They are so cute!!
Another busy week of work went by and today we went on a gorgeous bike ride! This weekend it has been absolutely beautiful so we took advantage of the weather and cruised down one of the many riverside paths in Tsurusaki. One of the very cool things about being here is on top of every river bank there are fantastic paved paths for running, walking, biking. They are away from traffic and follow the rivers for miles. We are fortunate enough to have three major rivers each within 10 minutes of our door. This summer there will be lots of swimming and hanging out at the river.
View of the paths along the Ono River
Shawn looking coolio
View of beautiful mountains around our area
Lovely spring colors on the river bank
My sweet bike
Me being goofy
Us
And that's the update for now!
Happy March.
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